Hunter of the Red Plains
by GradusAdParnassum
Summary: The lonely sword on top of the desolated world of steel and fire that was his hill of swords had found what he had wanted after an eternity of trying. Freedom, the most special thing that he had lost in a try to fulfill the wish of a dead broken man.
1. Chapter 1

**_Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata_**

* * *

Chapter 1: Prologue

Sometimes he wondered if what he had achieved was truly real, the returned freedom that had been taken by his foolish choice of continuing the path of being an 'Ally of Justice', the path that his father-like figure when he was still Emiya Shirou had taken and that he had decided to follow just to know if he could feel the same happiness that the broken man had felt in that moment... he could not recall the events completely, for his memory has been messed up for living out of the time flow— making him, technically, one of the oldest beings on the existence and for someone as old like him it was hard to recall many events, even if those events were very similar to each other.

The human mind and memory was a fragile thing after all.

He remembered bits of it... how they destroyed a pillar of the evil essence that had corrupted the Grail and wanted to be born in the world, they... as in the people that he had long since forgotten about. How he had made sure that everyone would survive, even if it was at the cost of his existence... Hahaha, he still was a fool, wasn't he? Even after eternities, he still put the lives of others over his own. It was for the best actually, his old foolish self had given up on his wish of becoming an 'Ally of Justice' and he...they _both_ had managed to save as many lives as possible. The life of the Knight King who he had failed to save her heart when he was young, the life of the both sisters that had gained a special place in his heart, the life of the little snow fairy that was destined to die months after the war ended, the life of the innocent monster that was put in the hands of the gods just for being _too beautiful... _finally, he had managed to save them all, and they would all live a peaceful life thanks to the usage of the Third Magic that the little fairy had obtained.

Knowing them, they would have probably been fucking like rabbits some months after he was returned to the grasp of Alaya, for no Mystery could be able to free him from the grasp of the Will of Humanity, not even a Mystery that defied the laws of the universe... or so he thought. After all, True Mysteries, mysteries that would _never_ be able to be reproduced or understood by science for it was understanding the very nature of the universe, were not something that a Third-Rate Magus like him would understand.

Illya... yes, he remembered the name, finally. Illya had managed to use the Heaven's Feel in order to overwrite his existence at her will, but as Alaya was putting a lot of resistance on it... they all decided— just after he had proposed it— to send his soul into an alternative world where the Will of Humanity had no influence over his existence with the help of that _insufferable _Wizard Marshal.

A request that he accepted... he didn't know why and that he had accepted so quickly scared him, he said that it was a payment for all the fun that all the versions of him had made for him but he somehow did not believe him, there had to be something under the lines in here... now if only he would know what.

She had managed to isolate his consciousness and a part of his soul from the main 'body' that resides in the Throne of Heroes, leaving it as a hollow body controlled fully by Alaya... everyone won! She kept her best _pet_ and he would get his freedom.

"It's a boy, Airi! It's a boy!"

The woman that held her cried out, all of them looked excited to see him, from the little that he was able to see, he felt tired and tries to voice out his complains to leave him on a bed, but his vocal cords had yet to properly develop, so all that came out of his mouth were noises without a single meaning to understand.

He was not able to hear them completely as if they were distant voices, his consciousness began to fade as soon as it has been returned, the last thing that he was able to hear was the voice of a young woman.

"Shirou... his name will be Shirou."

And so it started the second chance of his life... however couldn't had that _geezer_ _bloodsucking mother-_ No, the sisters of his mother will hear his silent furious mumbles and considering his short age of four years old, it was not a good thing that they heard him talking like an adult— the reason why he barely said anything to everyone, even his mother—... although he could probably use his adorable young face to make his mother believe that he had heard it from one of her sisters or a member of the clientage. But knowing his mother... she was too perceptive for someone so young.

Barely fifteen years had passed since the day when she had been named, that was the age which she had when she had given birth to him. One of the oldest, if you were to count the amount of time that he had been conscious, beings that have existed, a being taken outside the normal flow of time, forced to go through all the battlefields of Humanity and end them by himself. The _training_ that the Will of Humanity had given to him after he had accepted _its _proposal for giving him a greater understanding of the universe and its secrets, as well a greater magical power... all in order to achieve a beautiful yet impossible dream that had never been his, disregarding all of the people who he had considered special in his heart once... a long time ago. Unlike the younger self that he had last witnessed, that version of Emiya Shirou... that Emiya Shirou was truly a hero, more than he had ever been.

Valuing all lives yet holding on a greater stand the ones that had a place on his heart, fighting alongside them instead of trying to protect them from afar, leaving them out of the danger... but out of his life as well. Only when the string was on his neck was the time that he looked back at the past, one of the strongest memories of his life, unable to be forgotten no matter how much time 'passed,' the memory of his simple house, cooking for the women that he could not remember their names but he did remember their faces and their voices.

Even when facing the worst that the Will of Humanity had made him pass through, it was that memory which had kept his, what little he still had of, sanity intact.

And that was what he had gained now, a family, peace, tranquility... but he knew that it would not last.

"Darling, why are you out of bed at this hour?"

Called out his mother of this life, Airi, she was called, a foreigner whose parents had sold her in order to pay their debts, if what he had read from her diary was true and not one of the books that she made as a hobby for she knew that no one outside their 'family' would read it if she were to publish them to the public market. It was only luck that the owner of this establishment, and almost all the red light district, had bought her freedom and not a person of _other _intentions. Yes, the old lady had made his mother a prostitute, but it was better than to be a slave in the mines or a sexual slave for a sick noble.

He stared right at her with his calm and somewhat relaxed— or at least that was what he tried for a man that had only known wars was hard to relax— and smiled gently.

"I was unable to sleep so I decided to walk a little."

It was true, a simple answer, but a true one, for even though he has been interacting for a few years with this world and its life force, it still surprised him that the Age of the Gods was still intact in this place... or maybe this was still the Age of the Fairies for how _abundant_ was the mana on the air. For not even in the records of the Age of Gods that he had heard about and had witnessed had this... _bottomless _amount of mana, making even the most ignorant of the people able to use the magical arts, even kids could use it if they studied hard enough and had a good amount of Internal Magical Energy.

Such was the case of his mother, don't misunderstand, she was not ignorant when it came to many topics but when it came to the magical arts that she had tried to teach him... she left a lot to desire, with all due respect, even he— A Third-Rate Magus— had been able to teach better than she had, as he vaguely remembered in one of the few memories that he could remember, even if it was just a little and could not remember all that hey had talked about, he still remembered the things that he had done along them after he had saved them... now, had they actually learned from him or were they already Magus? He could not remember other than him showing his brand of Magecraft to the children... maybe he had been just entertaining them and not teaching them.

Too many memories conflicted with each other so he was not able to remember it correctly, like many other things.

A book with three leaves on the cover, the design of it was as if the cover was also a page with several letters written on it that seemed to be moving, releasing a white aura appeared in the hand of his mother. A hand made out of magical energy, its color white with black symbols running through it, it's shape was big enough to make him unable to escape from its grasp. The book was a magical item of the rarest kind from the world that he came from, almost as rare as to find a mortal been born with Mystic Eyes only compared to those of the Age of Gods, but in this world, every and single person seemed to have it.

A Grimoire, a Pseudo-Sentient Mystic Code that empowered one's spells to a greater level, connected to the soul of the user, but unlike his native world, the grimoires of this world were magical items capable of growing up as the user grew up as well inscribing the spells that one would develop as time passed on it. The leaves in the covers had meaning if he remembered straight— very similar to the using a shamrock to illustrate the — each leaf represented faith, hope, and love. His mother had also once told him that a four-leaf grimoire meant good luck, fortune in life, symbolizing the great magical power that they owned and would own, however, there was also the five-leaf grimoire which symbolized the devil, sorcerers that had fallen from their negative emotions and got themselves connected with the devils.

How did she know such information? She had told him that she heard lots of things in her daily work.

"Shirou, how did you got out of your room? I am pretty sure that I had left you all— oh."

Yes, oh. His mother stopped right at the entrance of the large room that held all the orphan children that 'belonged' to the owner of this place, one of the reasons why there were not orphans on the streets of Kikka on the nights. The women in charge of taking care of them were more asleep than the children, the books that they were supposed to read to make the children sleep happily were spread on their bodies, occupying the beds of the children as their snores were loud enough to slightly move the beds. The children around them, using their painting to make the two women into linen of the creativity of the children.

"Ehem!"

His mother cleared her throat loudly enough for both women to wake up, wide as plates were their eyes went they gazed on the terrifying aura of his mother who had finally let her spell dissipate and left her only son on the ground, they straightened their backs and made a military salute to greet her, forgetting to wipe out the line of saliva that was falling from their beautiful faces.

"We... we are going to talk later about this." Both women paled at her words. "For now check on what kids had left this room while you two were sleeping."

Sometimes he questioned if his mother had been a member of the militia before for how hard and imponent was her voice, her whole posture even screamed discipline in this sort of moment.

It did not take too long for them to find the other children that had escaped after he did. Shirou already knew that the children would not go too far away from the room as they preferred the safety of this room, wide enough for the fifty children to sleep together and play as they liked in this wide space of this room, at worst, they would go to the garden that the big sisters made in order to relieve their stress and admire the many flowers that they had acquired with the money of their work.

A few minutes later, all the kids were very comfortable tucked inside their beds, still laughing from the look of the two big sisters as they left the room.

"Kids, order please." More than a suggestion, it was an order that made every kid bury themselves in the thick blankets that kept them, some, the ones unable to contain their laughter, used their hands to cover their mouths. "Good." Her expression softened as she got on the seat in front of the bookshelves with almost all of the books that everyone had gotten with their money or had written, and although the bookshelves behind her were apparently very few on number, the whole quantity was hidden by a spell that came from one of the big sisters with Spatial 'Magic'... even now he still had some kind of weird feeling every time he referred the Magical Arts of this world as Magic. For someone like him, a Magus of the XXI century whose description of 'Magic' was the magical arts that could never be able to be reproduced by science, something that went against the very laws of the universe.

"One of romance." One of the girls said.

"A Nursery Rhyme." A boy said, backed up by his female twin.

"A mystery one." One of the oldest kids said.

But it was the choice of the youngest of the children, barely 3 years old was she, that his mother had ended up picking.

"One of your stories."

Her mood brightened at the fact that everyone agreed with the soft voice of the youngest child, even though she tried to hide it, he could see through her stiffened expression and the brightness of her aura.

"Are you sure? My stories are not that good."

That was always what she said, she was embarrassed about her stories actually, her stories seemed to be made more by a child than by an adult, the story of Knights that went to save the princess from the claws of the dragons and that sort of thing. However, he did not understand why, but her stories were completely identical to the stories to the legends of his world, even the way that she had written the stories were extremely identical to the legends and myths of his world.

... Today's story was _oddly_ familiar, it was almost as if it was his own.

_The tale of a lonely sword in the shape of a man._

_Steel was his body, fire was his blood and glass was his heart._

_Overcame a thousand battlefields, unaware of the cost, the pain, nor victory._

_Never accepting retreat nor defeat._

_Never understanding what he had until he had lost it all, understanding it as he stood at the end of his life, surrounded by the loneliness of silent plains of steel and fire that was his soul where only the gears on the sky were moving. A sole purpose, that of a sword._

_He always stood there, waiting for the next war that humanity would surely come._

_His life would never again shine with the same brightness, for he would never know what was peace ever again._

_His body was surely made of swords._

Yes... his body was made of swords, indeed it was.

But finally, after eons of wars and bloodshed, the sword had found peace, even if it was going to last a short time... he would no longer abandon those who he held dear to his heart.

His life would never shine with the same brightness... it will shine with greater light. They, who have not abandoned them even when he had abandoned them, have made sure to open him a path where he could make a light greater than the one that he had lost.

He owed them to live a life where he could feel the most comfortable with.

This was his story, the story of a rusted blade that has finally known peace after living a personal hell of an eternity of killing.

A peace that he would take the most pleasure on, by living it at its fullest.

* * *

_**Ahhhh... I was kind of bored, had a little free time and this idea had suddenly popped up on my mind, is it good?**_

_**Please, leave your thoughts on the review section.**_

_**See you next time :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata_**

* * *

Chapter 2: Childhood (I)

Six years, nearly reaching the mark of seven years, nothing has happened yet... something was wrong, something was wrong. How could it be? How could his E-rank luck result in a pacific life for so much time?

The first five years, despite not wanting to think about it for he had wanted to keep his worries aside and enjoy this long-term vacation and his eventual return to the normal cycle of reincarnation instead of returning to Alaya, hopefully... however, he should have been expecting something to happen, not that anything was happening, and that was the problem!

How he- a magus whose presence rejected the authority of the world- continued living a pacific life for so long?

Not that he was going to do something so petty as to curse his current existence where his previous dream of being an 'Ally of Justice' had more possibilities to be achieved than in his native world and time, it was practically in a silver plate the possibility to achieve the dream that he had once had taken from the man that would become his father. This life has been granted by the little snow fairy that he had called his little sister when he still was Emiya Shirou— he preferred to ignore that the vampire had something to do with it— and it would be an insult to her if he cursed this situation.

He... just was not used to feeling so much peace.

Unsurprising, considerating how many... _jobs_ he had gone through.

But still, his new life in the city of Kikka, one of the many towns on the Common region and one of the principal center of trading, was really peaceful despite being in the Red-light district of the town, then again, that the 'owner' of almost all this zone had a lot to do with that peace, no one was crazy enough to challenge that Old lady after all, her magical prowess was incredible to the point that he had heard that she had been one of the few Magic Knights capable of going toe-to-toe against a Magic Knight Captian. An exaggeration, he may never knew for he had never witnessed a battle of hers against those Captians, but he could easily say that the Old lady had near as much prana as the Witch of Betrayal, a Magus from the Age of the Gods with the blood of the Greek gods running through her veins, something worthy of praise, despite this world's mana not being as dangerous as the one of his native world.

This place was practically a utopia for Magus, the grimoires that they were given at the age of fifteen when their magical energies had been fully developed gave them a huge advantage when casting spells, not making them pass through the most difficult steps of casting a spell. Practically they were given everything.

A world that facilitated the continuous existence of the Mysteries instead of trying to use its influence to erase them.

A powerful Mystic Code that he suspected were 'naturally' created by a special device of the Kingdom for the grimoires of this world were too large in number to be produced by a few Magus, even if the art of the creation of grimoires was spread through the whole Kingdom, or the whole world in the worst of the cases.

Larger inner magical reserves than the magus of his native world and age.

His old body, before he had made that deal with the Will of Humanity, he could remember that he was above the average magus, his magical power hindered by the fact that his magical circuits had been badly developed due to the neglect of his mana circuits, that caused for his mana circuits to produce a really small amount of units of magical energy. After he had made the deal with the Counter Force, his magical circuits had been empowered to the point that he could compete against even with some Heroic Spirits despite him not having any fame to his name. And this new one, where to begin... he had enough magical energy to compete to the one of the average Magical Knight— if he were to go to the Servant parameters it would be approximate to the middle E-rank— and considerating that he was a child, he had caught the eye of several people of suspicious origins.

But nothing had happened yet, he had almost believed that they would do something like stealing him from the Old lady's territory, but considerating who she was, he had almost laughed at the paranoid ideas that were again appearing on his head.

His mother had been surprised by his natural ability in using 'Magic' and controlling it, saying that he may have a good future ahead if he chooses to be a Magic Knight or a Bodyguard of some rich noble, things that he did not want to be going again to that path of bloodshed if possible. He knew that it couldn't and he would eventually return, but he preferred to have _hope_ on a future where he wouldn't be alone on the top of his hill of swords.

... Maybe a bartender or a chef he would become, that was what he preferred to be, for the fact of making the housework had always given him a sense of tranquility, especially after he had become an Agent of Alaya, the sense of tranquility had only increased when that happened. Call it boring, but that was what he wanted to do above all, cooking for people while watching their expressions as they exaggerated about the taste of his food, it returned warmth to his heart made of glass that he had lost eons ago.

But although he had this wish, he did try to become stronger... just in case, it was better safe than sorry, after all, and the possibility of Alaya sending some of her Counter Guardians just to retrieve her 'best' _pawn_ was not something that he wanted to leave to the destiny. It may only be a possibility, a possibility that may not even happen for it was unthinkable that the Will of Humanity would even _bother_ to retrieve him when _it_ had a _vast_ amount of Counter Guardians under her possession, but he did not wish to leave such thing as _just a possibility_ and ending returning to the _claws _of the Will of Humanity.

At first, he tried to discover the limits of his body when trying to use Reinforcement, and although his body was small and fragile-looking, despite him trying to gain as much muscle mass as possible while not hindering his growth, when he was using Reinforcement, he was able to bend metal with some difficulty. Something a few levels behind from what his former body had been able to do, but that was an unfair comparison for his former body was the fully developed body of an adult that had trained every day to try to further his limits and have the most healthy flow of Od in his body in order to be at the best possible condition.

Those limits would grow with time so there was no much thing that he could do with the Reinforcement Spell, however, he could still try to add Runes to his body. While it would be undoubtedly painful to do so, the benefits of doing so would be worth it, and considerating that the Runes were sigils that once inscribed on a surface or- if one was skilled enough- in the space, would enact a Mistery according to the meaning that he gave to it. This was one of the few Magecrafts that he was able to use, while he was not skilled enough in this art like people that had lived in Scandinavia during the Age of the Gods or the Magus families that studied this looked down magical art, created by the All-Father himself... but that did not mean that it couldn't be used, despite the lack of the existence of the leader of the Aesir, Odin.

There were many Magecrafts that had required the prior existence of Divine Spirits, and he was fortunate that he had not invest his time into learning such Magecraft despite being one of the most easiest Magecraft that could be used, not because he looked such arts down but because he was slow on doing Magic Circles and he had not the pleasure of pulling out a sacrifice in the middle of his battles against beings that could go toe-to-toe against Servants.

But he had to wait until it was safe for him to do so and to obtain the best possible Runes before carving them on his body, for now, he would carve Runes on the leather armor, altered in order to increase his mobility with it by one of the few magical arts that he knew, Alteration, that he had stolen from the merchants of this city. Trial and error would be his teacher regarding this art for he had not invested too much time on it, he had only learned a few runes by memory, however, he knew the basics on how to 'create' a Rune, one just had to give a meaning to a sigil and so, they would enact Mysteries by the alteration of the Mana. Making a concept, a predetermined phenomenon, would not be so hard for him as despite being a Third-Rate Magus, he still was a Magus, and not only that but also a Freelancer who usually hunted down Magus— some of great renown, and that had earned him the title of the 'Second Magus Killer'— who got too ahead of themselves in their studies, risking the exposition of the Moonlight World while sacrificing too many humans lives, but it still was going to be somewhat complicated.

It was kinda ironical that the thing that he most remembered, aside from the smile of Emiya Kiritsugu, were the studies that these Magi did or the theories that he had made after a long study of Thaumaturgical Systems in order to don't go blindly towards the enemy, not to mention the fact that he had also asked the Will of Humanity for knowledge of all the Magical Arts, which he could remember near everything almost instinctively but he was not able to use any of them for many reasons. Information was one of the most valuable things that one could have in battlefield, one needed to know everything that they could in order to obtain the most favorable outcome; and in the battlefield, one could not give _any_ kind of information to the enemy and could not show his ignorance regarding certain topics, all of it could be taken as an advantage for the enemy... but if he misdirected the information, making everyone think that he was actually clueless about everything, he could take that as an advantage. Having information while making everyone think that he knew anything about it, that has always been his strategy when fighting against enemies that he knew where stronger than him or had an advantage against him.

The concepts were not so complicated but that was to be expected from a spell, that did not require the use of the only spell that he was the most proficient with, coming from him. He would later find better equipment and ingredients to be prepared for whatever this world had for him.

If one wanted to have an idea of how was the process, Runecraft could be the equivalent to the cheat codes of a game, being the game the equivalent of the World.

"Next would be the usage of Unlimited Blade Works."

He mumbled to himself as he looked at his form-fitting armor of leather that covered his entire chest and the leather pants that he had also obtained by stealing him from another one of those jerks that looked at his mother with those eyes similar to animals on heat. Even if his mother had _that_ kind of job, he did not want people to look at her like that when she was not _working_. He gave soft hits to his covered chest by armor reinforced by runes and casual clothes for people of this world, that was still on the Middle Age.

He was in the middle of the garden, sitting below one of the trees of cherry blossoms that the Old lady had obtained from the merchants just to please a childish desire of his mother. His eyes looking at all directions to confirm that no one was near enough to see what he was going to do, sighing when he caught the scent of the magical power of his mother along with the scent of the other children, she would not wonder where was he for she knew that he preferred to rest in the shadows of the trees instead of listening to her lessons... even if she pouted adorably every time she looked at him after a class ended, he did not found pleasure on making his mother feel sad, but he had to check if he could use the sole talent that he had born with, in his past life.

The Internal Magical Energy Circulatory System in this world was different and his soul and body were adapting to those changes, for although this new internal system was quite similar to the pseudo-nervous system that he was used to and spread itself through the human body and what qualifies a person to be a magus, paths that convert their life force into magical energy, instead of being like a nervous system that directly came from the user's soul, this new system was more like the Circulatory System of his physical body, the Inner Magical Energy flowed through his body smoothly as if it were blood running through his veins, with paths more wider than his previous ones. The differences were very few but very important- although he could vaguely feel that he also had the kind of Magic Circuits that came from his soul combined with the ones of his physical body-, a faster way of casting with less input on the focus of the combination magical energy and lifeforce, making it less dangerous for the user, and a faster regeneration of magical power that somehow connected with the blood vessels, making the heart the core from where the magical energy came from, as well as connecting the physical body with the spiritual body, were the most important ones.

The way to use Magecraft in this world was somewhat easier than in his former world due to this, although he had a hard time at first when he noticed that the amount of Od that he was using on creating a simple rune was far too large, like a water pipe completely open that let all the water that has been stored be wasted, it did not take long for him to adjust the amount of Od that he was using, he had a lot of practice in the past as he tried to lower the Magical Energy cost when Tracing a Noble Phantasm to the minimum possible.

He got ready to Trace a nameless sword, the cost of it would not be that large and swords were the thing that he had the most skill on using his special brand of Projection for such things. It was better safe than sorry when it came to these kinds of experiments typical for Magus of all kind, and not even him was exempt from that rule. A Third-Rate Magus he may be, but he still was a Magus that pursued the betterment of his art.

His internal magical energy surrounded his body like an aura that coated his whole body before it disappeared almost instantly to the naked eye, ivory was its color and heavy were its particles, a power that rejected the reality, forcing his inner world where _he_ was the _king_ into this reality. Magical energy greater than what he should have at this age in his previous world, magical energy of high quality that came from the power of a new world, _his_ inner world.

A forgery of thoughts. An armory of legends given physical form.

His soul. His world. His rules.

His will was law for his Reality Marble that he had given the name of the Unlimited Blade Works, the limitless universe of weapons of old that his mind could understand and fake their existence. It had not taken a lot to call it forth... however.

"Strange, could it be the influence of the laws of magic that governed this world?"

This blade was not as durable as he had thought that it would be and was used to, the process of Tracing a weapon had always been kind of automatical, it was his Reality Marble that did most of the job of 'creating' the required weapon while he just projected the work that his Reality Marble did, the division that he mentally did in the process of the projection of his Traced weapons had become almost instinctual. The mental image of the weapon that he had wanted to make had been the most flawless thing that he could make thanks to his expertise in the Structural Grasping Magecraft, making the fact that this blade was weaker than it was supposed to be, something that he had _long _since solved, for his mind has been steeled in order to make the most perfect version that he could reproduce by picturing the weapon that he wanted. It was not so weak to the point that it would break in the instant that he clashed the blade with the wood of the tree, but it was still weak to the point that it seemed to be an overused blade instead of a brand new one.

It was almost as if the—

... No way! How could he have been so stupid?! It was the most obvious of the answers.

He groaned as he covered his face on his hands in shame. A Third-Rate Magus he may be... but he still was a Magus that had a lot of self-respect on his knowledge of the Magecraft.

"To forget about the Thaumaturgical Foundation... I am a failure as a Magus."

_Ahhh~ _It couldn't be helped, although he had been given that knowledge by Alaya, his mind was still that of a human, he knew it instinctively, yes; but trying to remember all of it was near impossible. Not to mention all the memories and experiences that he had stored within his mind, to the point that it was almost maddening, and that his _ridiculously _extensive knowledge was conflicting with everything that he knew. Instead of remembering the most accepted theory by modern Magus, he had remembered the theory of the Magi that came from the Age of the Gods, a theory that they had made in their desire to don't rely on the Origins that the gods had made if he remembered straight.

The Thaumaturgical Foundation was a Thaumaturgical Theory "engraved" upon the in the form of scholarship or religion a body of pre-established rules, fomented per the faith of the populace. It was also called a Greater Magic Formula as a cluster of Magic Formulae, each of which runs a Magecraft written within it when a Mage sends a command through their Magic Circuits to it.

Summarizing, Foundations are necessary for the usage of Magecraft, without an _origin_, it was impossible to use them... however, there were some exceptions. To give an idea, each Thaumaturgical School has their Foundation and the further a user is away from their Foundation, the weaker the effect of their Magecraft becomes. However, he was never away from his foundation, for the foundation of his power originated from his Inner World, this rule also applied for beings with other Reality Marbles or users of the Second Magic.

This was what made him the bane of many Magus in his life, the Foundations would become weaker near him due to the influence of his Reality Marble, only other beings with Reality Marbles were capable of countering this. But in the moment that he imposed his inner world to the outer world, all magic that did not came from him or from supernatural abilities like Noble Phantasm, the True Magics or other Reality Marbles— which were partially sealed, making them unable to bring forth their Inner World— would be sealed in the time that they stayed in his world.

That explained why the Runes were costing so much power, he was the one who was copying this art that came from his native world into the world, he was creating a foundation. And the reason why was already starting to cost less and less was probably due to the possibility that there was a similar Magecraft to this one outside in this world, or that the Foundation that he had created was already to take roots in this world.

Unlimited Blade Works would find a way to stabilize its presence to the flow of this world, actually little by little it was adapting to this world in order to exist on it without its presence being erased by the Will of this World before it reached a state of maturity in this world in order to impose its presence on this world, a sign of such thing was the extreme amount of Internal Magical Energy that he had, his soul, the very core of his magical powers, was battling against the Will of this World in order to don't be crushed by it, going as far as to evolve in order to adapt.

How and when it would fully stabilize? He did not know, only time did. He would have to wait for his Inner World to reach a 'balance' with this world to start using his Magecraft.

"Hmmm, what do we have here? A bad little boy that deserves some punishment for not attending the classes of his loving mother~"

The sweet voice startled him as the aura that his mother released was anything but _sweet_. He faced her in a military position trying to look as innocently as possible. Maybe he could bargain with his mother to don't punish him... kind his mother may be at almost all times, but when she stopped making jobs and acting childish, that was when one had to fear her.

"Y-you look be-beautiful as well today, mother, haha—"

"Flattery is appreciated, my beloved Shirou, but it is not going to save you."

It was worth the try... However! He still got a card under his sleeve! He looked at his mother like Saber and Illya used to look at him whenever he said that he would not cook for them for an entire day, the _fearsome_ puppy eyes that no matter how hard he tried could not counter it, if he did a good job than it was possible to even fool his mother into regretting her wanting to scold him. His mother was strong, but the image of him looking at her with his impression of a hurt puppy was stronger, in the end, she had not the will to continue the scolding and instead chose to pout at him, seeing through what he was doing but not allowing herself to continue her scolding.

"Mou~, why do you have to be so cute?!"

Ahh~ acting all adorable after doing something considered as wrong for the adults, just to don't obtain any kind of repercussion... is this the amusement that the little snow fairy felt every time she used the shape of her body in her advantage to make pranks?

His mother pressed her cheek against his, friction produced by the moving of her cheek against his was not bothersome, he found it heartwarming, even if it was embarrassing for most of the kids to put in such situations in the open. But he was not the most of the kids, he did not want to push away his mother from the sudden embarrassing contact of her skin against his, for two things. One, he was not a brat and understood perfectly that this was the average reaction that a doting mother would have with their kids, and his mother really fit in that category, and two, he would not admit it out loud for it was kinda embarrassing for a being as old as him, but he liked the tender contact of his mother and his childish demeanor when she wanted him to give her some attention.

It kinda reminded him of the girl in the body of a woman that always hit him with that _demonic_ practice sword made of bamboo, the big-sister figure that he had deemed unimportant enough to return to her side when she was in her moment of most need and had eventually died without seeing the _thing_ that he had become... he had always thought that it was for the best for her to don't see him.

The cold-blooded killer that had taken the lives of many innocents that had stood on his path as mere casualties from his crusade.

He had later regretted that in his eternal torment that was being a Counter Guardian, along with all the choices that he had made in life. Coming from not trying harder to make Saber accept her place in history to never looking back to the people that he had abandoned by putting them on the same level as everyone as if they had no value on his life.

He did not want to make the same mistake again, he did not want his mother or any of the people that he knew in this life, to be disgusted with him, to leave him alone on top of that hill of swords that he had created with his actions.

"But of course!" She exclaimed, freeing him to make a pose, stars appeared on her eyes and her aura became warmer. "It was expected! As you are the child of your beautiful, adorable, intelligent..."

She continued to say every single positive adjective on existence while he chuckled. Yes, he had to admit it, his mother was a woman of great beauty, a breathtaking mortal-kind of beauty. Her pristine white hair like snow flowed behind her back and her silver eyes that she had inherited from her ancestors added her appearance an exotic kind of beauty only seen on some nobles of this Kingdom. He hid his smile while closing his lips tightly, it was really hard not to laugh at this kind of acting from his mother, a kind of laughter that an elder would have as a kid did something adorable in front of them. The sleeve of the outfit that she had made for him covered his mouth elegantly, an outfit that he remembered from a distant past and that his mother had said to him that it came from her homeland, a Kimono— its name was coincidently being the same as the one of his homeworld—, as he failed slightly to contain some chuckles to leave his mouth, earning a pull from both of his cheeks as his mother was surrounded by a dangerous energy and her veins seemed to get notorious on her forehead.

"It hurts..."

He said between small chuckles, while it indeed hurt, he had never bothered with the pain since the moment of his birth from the fires that burned away everything that he had once been, and after lifetimes of war, why would he even bother with things such as pain, for bothering about it would hinder his capacity of thinking to plan strategies in order to take down his enemies. She stopped after a few more seconds while looking at him with teary big eyes as she started hitting him jokingly with so little strength that it almost felt as if he was being hit by pillows, saying things like 'Respect mommy!' or 'Shi-chan is a dummy!'. Really... this woman sure was childish when they were all alone... but that was what he loved about his mother, this childishness... it felt relaxing.

"Oh ho! What do we have here?"

His mother tried to take the little bag that he was using to hide the food that he had prepared for both of them, but he still wanted to play with her. It was relaxing and amusing to see her losing her cool as she tried to catch the slippery young kid that he was.

For everyone who had to get to know him, it would be the weirdest of the sights to see the one who had cold-bloodedly killed so many beings that he had long since forgotten about the number of the pile of corpses that held his world, then instantly they would have laughed about it. But he did not care and would never care about what others thought about his way to enjoy the happiness that was the freedom from the grasp of the Will of Humanity.

As expected of someone far larger than him, she caught him after a minute of playing around the game of the cat and the mouse, with a single hand she was opening the bag while she used her other arm to hold him close to her. She opened and...

"Pastries?"

She stared curiously at him while she salivated slightly, earning another chuckle from her son, this food looked far too good for anyone of his age would ever make and considerating that she made _completely_ sure that he would never get close to dangerous environments at this early point of his life, like the kitchen... dreadful place it was, for she had never gotten away from it without burning something. Her cute child that had inherited all her characteristics and took them to a higher level— and that was the reason why she had called him Shirou, which also meant 'White' as a single word in the language from where she came from—, for example, his hair was so white that under the sun it would glow from the colors of the rainbow, his skin seemed to be made of marble or porcelain rather than flesh, although not in an unhealthy way, and with steel eyes that seemed to the gate to a whole new world... had he inherited something from his grandmother?

He nodded with a gentle smile gracing his face.

"Indeed, I made it myself for you."

She hummed to herself happily, looking at him with a grateful look, probably due to a punishment that came from the Old lady to don't touch any kind of sweet as she had an unhealthy obsession with sweets and she had probably eaten something made for a client, before she put it all inside her mouth, only managed to taste it a little bit... yet that little bit that she had tasted was enough to send her to a heaven. Her aura had become as bright and warm as the one of a child that had all the love of the world since the moment of their birth.

"Hmmmm~." Exaggerated was her reaction as everyone else in his past life had reacted to his food, and he was happy with that, a peaceful expression crossed his face.

Yes... a chef, a bartender or a baker he would become, he liked that expression of joy.

"My cute snowflake~!" She snuggled him happily as she tasted the next _heavenly _dessert that he had made. "Who taught you that?"

"S~ecret."

No one had believed Emiya Shirou that he had taught himself how to cook, no one would believe him now that he had the appearance of a child.

"Ufufu, someone would think that you did it with magic~... but considerating that you don't have inherited that kind of magical affinity, I would not think so."

The serious but gentle words at the end... Ahh~ she saw him, didn't she? Not that he was trying to hide his experiments with his magical powers that this body had.

"So you noticed."

A nod coming from her, it was as expected.

"When I saw the blade suddenly appearing out of nowhere, I first thought that you may have an affinity to steel and you were actually very proficient with Creation magic or even a Sword affinity... but then I remembered the letters that you had written on that armor that you have 'obtained', I don't actually know if it's true but I think that you may have a similar magic affinity to mine."

His mother had called her magical affinity, 'Words', something very simple, but considerating that she could create anything that she imagined using only her magical power by writing 'Words' on the reality and making it so that the world recognized those words and make the shape. A powerful magic if it was in the hands of someone who wanted to obtain more power, but his mother was just a kind woman who preferred a quiet and peaceful life working for the woman that had 'saved' her from the infinite amount of possibilities where she would end up on an _absolutely_ _worse_ fate.

If he was to compare her power to someone... it would be pretty similar to the Reality Marble of the Caster of Nightless City, Scheherazade, where she is able to materialize her tale, the One Thousand and One Nights, which summons and gives form to characters, tools, spirits, and so forth that appeared within One Thousand and One Nights. But unlike the Storyteller who materialized the over a thousand stories that she had made in order to survive, his mother materialized a chapter or even a paragraph into the world without cutting off the normal reality and projecting their internal space... however, if she had chosen to follow the path of war, then she may had as well being able to make a Reality Marble.

Maybe it was that why she was his mother in this life, as she was one of the few beings in this world that could possibly give birth to someone able to turn everything into their world.

"Hmmm." He hummed to himself, as a small smile appeared on his face. "Maybe I can even become a story writer like you."

A flushed expression crossed her face before she started to pout at him, she was pretty embarrassed about the collection that she had made for she thought that it was kinda childish to have so much imagination and some of the stories were embarrassing. She then started to hug him harder, before her strength abandoned her and the hug became a soft one.

"Whatever you want to be, I will support you on every and single one of your decisions."

Hmmm~ So this is what it felt to have a mother... no wonder the last Masters of Chaldea always looked so happy whenever they were hugged by the member of the Minamoto clan who had been in charge of the Imperial Guard of the Country, although the reason could also be for their hormones.

"Hmmm, then... what should I choose?"

Chef, bartender, Baker or Story writer... the choice was extremely hard to make... also-

How should he call this new 'magic' that he had?

* * *

_**Here is chapter two, I hope that you had enjoyed it.**_

_**A few things as a little bit more information about the story.**_

_** I'm sorry if I am not able to make a good impersonation of EMIYA, I wanted to make a story about an EMIYA that had finally found a little ray of hope of being able to live a pacific life again (Not that he is going to remain in that pacific life for too long since the mere fact that he is EMIYA and that his magic rejects the reality of the world, the world makes everything possible to eliminate that 'virus' on its system, throwing at him everything that it could, something greatly connected to the E-rank luck that he is known for, or at least that is my theory regarding the shitty luck of EMIYA. Basically, EMIYA equals troubles.**_

_**I think that as the chapter progressed I had confused some information with the cannon, so please feel free to point out those and help me grow in a better path.**_

_**Considerating that many characters of the world of Black Clover are as powerful as Servants, I think I will give him a little power-up, however, I will try not to make it too overpowered as I don't want to make EMIYA the hero of this world that would save everyone just because he has a lot of power or something like that- but principally, to don't take the stage of the other characters- as even though he is like all the other EMIYA who had ended up putting their faith on Shirou as that Shirou had managed to carve a better path than the one that EMIYA had, and that this EMIYA is the one that had managed to witness the Emiya Shirou that had managed to save everyone and was not as foolish as EMIYA had been in life, managing to obtain the hope for a future where Emiya Shirou would not have regrets. The Emiya Shirou that despite knowing that their stolen ideal was flawed, he believed in it for the beauty of it, a beauty that he wanted to share with everyone, an Emiya Shirou that had decided not to abandon them for people that he did not know, deeming the people that had loved him as unimportant as everyone else in the world.**_

_**Also, Illya had managed to save the EMIYA that has been directly connected to the Throne of Heroes the one trapped in the Infinite World of Swords, the 'true' EMIYA, making him more different than the rest as he had stared at the infinite possibilities of existence, making him slightly confused about the knowledge that he knew, which is a lot. So every affirmation that he makes could not actually be the true.**_

_**Regarding my other story that I was supposed to upload yesterday... I'm an idiot, I was trying to erase some of the ideas that I was starting but ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would, and I accidentally ended up erasing the story that I had. I will try to upload it today or tomorrow as I remember slightly all the things that I had written. Also I'm going to change the regular upload to the Sunday, uploading it at the same time that I upload this story.**_

_**Thank you for reading this~ I will see you next time**_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata_**

* * *

**_Message: Guys, I was wondering, should I also include characters from other the Nasuverse, mostly Fate/Grand Order? Yes?... No?... If yes, They will not be so OP to the point that they would destroy the world and would get Magics of this world, like King Gilgamesh with Ea or Semiramis with her Hanging Gardens of Babylon... Although I was not planning on adding them in the story as I wanted mostly to focus on EMIYA and too many characters would hinder the 'screen time' of the other ones and it will end up being confusing._**

**_It's just a question, if you desire it I can try and you all can choose which characters you wish to see (Hopefully I will make a good impersonation of their characters)._**

**_This arc will continue the life of EMIYA and the discovery of his new magic and how he starts training with it._**

* * *

Chapter 3: Childhood (II)

How to call it? How to call it?

It has been the question that he has been asking himself since his mother had told him that his 'Magic' was very similar to hers. And even after a few months of trying, he had no idea how to call it, which word would it fit the best to this new form of Thaumaturgy that he had an affinity to. His Origin had not been changed, he still had a natural affinity on reproducing weapons of close range, the easiest ones for his Reality Marble to reproduce being the different types of 'swords', and it would never be erased that Origin, for the Origins was the starting point that defines one's existence and directs one's actions throughout life. It is the driving force that comes from within the Root that has managed to stream out of the Source and take on material form. And since he had awakened his Origin a long time ago, he would never be able to stray from his Origin... but that did not mean that other Origins could be added.

Actually, instead of saying that an Origin could simply be 'added' as if nothing more than another program to a machine, one could say that it was possible for a being to develop another Origin that was not his natural one. After all, before EMIYA had been the nameless Heroic Spirit that he had been, EMIYA had been Emiya Shirou, and before Emiya Shirou had been Emiya Shirou... he had been someone _entirely _else. An existence with a different destiny, a different Origin.

It could _theoretically_ happen under abnormal circumstances like for example... being exposed to the endless curses that had been put on the shoulders of an innocent child that had been turned into a demon by the sins of humanity then being healed by the purest of the lights, the light of a dream, a dream where pain did not exist. Of course, it was only a theory that he would never be able to prove... but it was a theory that he considered being the closest one to the truth for the question of why he had the power to impose his Inner World into the Outer World, a power that had only been acquired to the best of the best of the ones that choose to follow the path of Magecraft, and even most of the magi who had tried to discover this Taboo ended up becoming _completely_ insane for the fact that managing to _look_ the world on an alien perspective was near impossible.

He had considered his original Origin to be Creation as he was now able to reproduce near perfection everything that came into his mind, except obviously for life, yet his creations were on a lesser level from what he imagined, the 'forging' of the materialized objects happened completely on his soul, his Reality Marble, and he simply projected his creations into the outer world... maybe it was the best choice, it was the most fitting thing to call this 'new' Origin that he possessed.

This 'new' Origin is what had influenced his soul to have another Elemental Affinity, a nonstandard elemental affinity, he did not bother too much in the name and temporarily decided to call this 'Magic' by the same name that his mother had used on her Elemental Affinity, Words.

But then where did the Magical Circuits of his physical body came into play?

It seemed that due to there being Physical Magical Circuits, the Origin of a person was awakened at the moment of their birth, making them only able to use a single Elemental Attribute, incapable of using any other element that they had no alignment with but able to use the derivatives of said Affinity, like if a person had Water Affinity then some would be able to use Ice, on a lesser level, but would never be able to use any other affinities like Fire, Earth, Magma or the sort. However, that also made the spells that came from their Attribute be more versatile than the spells back on his native world.

For example, Magecraft that altered the gravity was one of the highest forms of Magecraft that one could learn, but in this world, even people with Attributes like Fire could defy the laws of gravity. Of course, not many were able to do so, but considering the number of people able to fly without a Mystic Code was significantly larger than what it had been on his world, even when it had been at the Age of the Gods, this was noteworthy.

Right now... he was trying also to replicate the effect of flying that some of these Magi had... he still was not comfortable with calling the Wizards or Sorcerers despite there being people capable of using forms of True Magic, although considerating that they had not the same variety of spells than his former world, near nobody would be able to reach the Root of the Universe to acquire the required knowledge in order to learn True Magic... also he should be starting to use the terminology of this world as everyone that was able to hear his muttering and read his notes was left with a blank expression as they did not understand the complexity of the theories that he had written in order to easy the remembrance of those.

"Be careful, Shirou, you may have a natural ability to control your mana, but you have yet to learn how to apply it correctly."

He knew how to apply it correctly, eons of practice and battlefields had been his teachers.

"Understood."

They were in the middle of the garden, the other children cheering on him as four of the 'Sisters' that worked on the brothel were throwing at him small rocks to help with this training exercise, his mother reluctantly accepting this, moving uncomfortably where she was standing. Like an overprotective mother watching their children making something dangerous but restraining herself, for she knew that if she tried to stop all this such act would be against the purpose of why he had offered himself to do this. She was not usually too overprotective, but she was not laidback either, she was... passing the term of 'protective mother.' Although there were times when she acted as if she was leaving her 'Little Snowflake' to 'take flight' and be by himself, just to be helping him a few minutes later even without him asking her. He understood her, the versions of himself who ended up with the Master(s) of Chaldea would have done a similar thing, just with a lot more protective measures... it was natural that he wanted to protect his masters, he had never understood why they all call him Overprotective Mother. He wasn't even a woman!

_EMIYA did not understand that his 'protective' measures were rather too excessive some times, and he probably would never understand._

He was standing on 'words' so small that it seemed as if he was standing on a cloud made of magic particles, the energy from his words was of the same ivory color as his mother, manipulating it to move his body without touching the floor and avoid the stones thrown at him, sometimes the sisters would throw some of their weakest spells at him as the women in charge of their training, a brother that has been a Magic Knight before returning to the place that had taken care of him since he was a baby until he was old enough to become part of this Kingdom Militia.

"Come on, Come on, brat! You will reach nowhere with that speed!"

And so a few scythes made of compressed air with enough strength to slice a boulder in two was thrown at him, everyone lowered their bodies from the attack except his mother who was in a state of shock and behind him from the sudden change of pace and himself who was unable to touch earth so he decided to simply speed up, with a flare of pra-... _mana_, he accelerated enough to avoid being cut in half by the pressured air. But then he noticed something.

'I'm going to die.'

His instincts honed through an eternity of going through all the battlefields that had ever existed told him so, it was impossible to avoid this and everyone knew it— He was going to die if no one did anything—, however, he had not trained for an eternity of war for nothing. Going against enemies far stronger than himself and coming up victorious. His body was still not developed enough to summon Rho Aias completely from the _Hill of Swords_, but only a layer would be enough.

_Soul and Body connected._

_I am the bone of my sword._

A path of azure lines on his right arm started to make a path towards his palm, the azure turned into an intense violet with a pulse of energy before a 'Flower' of three petals blossomed in the space in front of him.

It blocked the attack that had been launched at him. But strangely, he felt it be weaker... no, it was not strange. No legend empowered this weapon, there was no History on them, for they had never existed in this world. The attack should have just scratched a petal of the shield, for each and single petal of Rho Aias had been as hard as a whole fortress, but now they had half of the hardness that it had once had.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

The scream of his mother made him cover his ears. Reinforced hearing with such a high-pitched voice that had cracked the crystal of the building, those two were not meant to be in the same sentence. His head was throbbing so hard that his concentration disappeared wavered and the 'cloud' of words that he was stepping on. His former body may have been used to such noises but his new one was not, his senses were relatively unused regarding this.

"Quite a powerful defensive spell you have cast there, brat."

He was able to hear those words, although they felt as if the voice came from a further place than just behind his back.

The one who owned the voice behind him just happened to be the same that had made the ground that he was using as support to raise his body from the previous fall. This time he landed even harder than before for he was used to raising his body as fast as possible, for a second wasted on the ground meant death if he prolonged too much the time in which he kissed the ground. His nose was bleeding slightly and he had felt one of his baby teeth move slightly, some dirt entered his mouth... somehow.

He looked behind him, the towering size of a woman almost two meters made it difficult for him to see her face, not to mention that the sun was just behind her head, but he could already guess who it was and his mind helped him to put the features that he had already gotten to characterize the physical features of her face. A few wrinkles visible on her hard face with little feminine features, a scar on her left eye which did not have a pupil, three scars on the right side of her lips as if a feline had scratched her with their claws, a big-toothed smile with a few yellow teeth. Her whole body was also built like a mountain, with oversized muscles that put on shame a bodybuilder, broad shoulders... she looked more like a gorilla than a woman.

"How is the air up there, old lady?"

He taunted with a smug, he couldn't help but voice out his thoughts with his raspy voice that struggled to keep with his taunting. A few coughs and he threw up all the contents of his inside along with the dirt that had entered his system.

"Better than the dirt that you have been breathing, brat... Anyway! Before your mother starts freaking out for your nose, I want you to meet up with someone." He stood up and started to receive the ice magical particles with the property of healing. "A blonde girl of blue eyes used to work under me, the Lil' beauty has become the captain of the squad quite recently, or so I am informed, I want you to meet her there, and no-"

He had already immediately left without any comply leaving his mouth without listening any further information as he already had an idea of the girl who the old lady was talking about and going in the same direction of the place where he knew that he would get some gossips about this woman. He left too quickly for he did not wish to see how his mother _crushed_ a grown man of almost twice her size for he had already witnessed such thing and it stopped being amusing once she started to _count_ fingers, the eyes of the old lady never leaving his small back.

"Buts..."

_That boy._

She gave a tired sigh as she ignored the walking of the children and the other sisters and brothers and the pleas and cries coming from her biggest child by far.

The old lady, all the disrespectful children called her. Her name was Angelica Glacies, and she was _not_ an old lady.

She was still in her 40s and god have mercy on the soul of the poor person who dared to call her old lady and was not a part of her family. But it was a whole different thing when someone of her family called her grandma or even old lady, her heart warmed to an extent that she felt like floating in the clouds.

She loved them all, no matter from where have they came from or what had they done in the past, they were all her children once they decided to work for her. And for her, they were the most valuable thing of all the treasures that she had acquired in all her life. Not that she would ever say it out loud, she still had a reputation to maintain, after all. Tarnished as it was her past, her present reputation and the people that she protected with it was all that it mattered. Besides, all the children knew how she felt about all of them.

A former noble.

A former Magic Knight Captian who loved a man that nobody wanted her to love.

The fruit of their love and the _bee_ who made it possible for her to have the small being, both gone by unknown means.

Airi... on her travels, she had stumbled with a Black Market that was said to sell some really powerful Magic Items stolen from the vault of the Clover Kingdom. Being the good citizen that she was, she couldn't allow those _precious_ items to fall in the wrong hands. Fortunately, she had a lot of money at the time and was able to pay it along with some _gifts_ coming from the one that was selling in the auction those items, just because she had been ended up paying over fifty times the original price. Of course, she kept the items, she may be loyal to the country, but she was not loyal to the _vaults_ of those royals and nobles.

Angelica has never been one to bow to anyone. Maybe that was why her family had disposed of as fast as they did with her, then again, she had married a _peasant_ and had given birth to his child. It was obvious that she was going to be erased from every and single record that those of higher had at their possession.

As a former part of the militia of the Country, she had stared at the worst of the worst that the world had to offer for her.

She had stared at the abyss and had not taken her gaze away from _its_. She had seen the burning body of children as she tried with all her strength to save them, just to fail at the try. She had seen the death of his comrades in arms in a medium-scale invasion from the Diamond country when she was just a Junior. She had been bathed in the blood of her enemies as she covered the battlefield into ice.

Her time as a Magic Knight had taught her a lot of things, one of those things being the look on the eyes and the reading of the physical habits. Even if a person was very well versed in the art of concealing one's true nature, one would be able to pick up many things just by staring at their eyes and facial features, not blinking nor taking her eyes off the target. One could determinate if a person had good or ill intentions if the person enjoyed one's company or was disgusted by it.

And the look of that child...

"It's like staring at the eyes of an old man..."

An old _insane_ warrior. Forged in the battlefield and tempered by the blood of its enemies, never knowing what was peace from the moment of his birth. A warrior that was finally the thing that everyone knew as _tranquility_.

Just staring at those eyes full of awareness and empty of any innocence since the moment of his birth, it made her feel uneasy. Those tired eyes yet with a small ray of happiness on them made her think of him like a retired Magic Knight who had stared too much at the abyss as if his whole life had only known death, bloodshed, and war. Those eyes... it was for that reason why _they_\- the Magic Knights- had been created in the first place.

So that the innocent would never get to know the true cruelty of the world.

The only thing that they needed to know was the stories of bravery and love. Not the stories of cruelty and war.

That was why she liked it when Airi started to read those cheesy stories that she had written from her dreams and imagination. It was a bonus to see her flustered face when she mentioned how excited she read her stories, even after all the children had already fallen asleep.

Except for her little brat, of course.

The little mature brat that tried to act childish, as if he was forcing himself to enjoy his childhood at all times- only becoming true when he was near her mother or when he was cooking or cleaning the building- always acting paranoid, as if from a shadow would come a monster and try to devour him. His desperate stance when he believed to be alone as if he could not tolerate it, even if he tried to act all cool near anyone while making them think that he preferred to be alone. She had only seen it in people that had spent too much time alone, all of them, rotting their minds in their madness even after being reunited with _anyone_.

Maybe she was just exaggerating the words, she would never comprehend what happened on that little mind of his, maybe she was just believing what she wanted to believe only using as a basis the look on his eyes and his tense stance... but it was clear that the brat did not like it to be alone, as if he were a deprived man of _everything_ and _it_ was suddenly returned to him.

Whatever it was... he would probably open himself to his mother eventually.

Now... where had she left the bandages-

_CRACK_

... Poor child, he would never be able to give her grandchildren now.

Wait... why was Airi looking at her with those eyes that seemed to glim maliciously? Why was she getting closer?

Why was she feeling fear?

"Lady Angelica~, forgive me if I'm wrong but I think that you just hit my cute Shi-chan and made him bleed~." She cracked her knuckles as a squad of soldiers made of magical energy prevented her from fleeing."That's no good~ I will have to discipline you too~ Kukuku..."

_Ah_... _so that's why_.

* * *

"Oh, my dear lady, what is a lovely flower doing in such a place?"

The woman of blond hair and azure eyes, with her hair tied in a ponytail with two bangs framing her face. An expressionless face disguising her annoyance and disgust for this _pathetic_ man who thought that only with sweet words whispered in her ear and a drink could win her heart. And considerating that her heart had already been taken... it was impossible for her to even look at him as more than a nuisance. A small blush made the man think that he was going in the right direction.

"Oh, my dear! Those strawberry cheeks of yours make me think that I am the king of the world right now."

_Patience._

Charlotte Roselei was her name, a noblewoman who had reached to where she was by her sense of duty, her skill, her strength and her efforts on the battlefield. A member of high standing in the militia, a Grand Magic Knight, but not only that, one of the Magic Knight Captians of the Seven- turned Nine a few months ago- Magic Knight Squads. Now, instead of wearing her armor as she did at all times, she was wearing a rather elegant outfit consisting of a pair of black pants and a white blouse, with decorated boots and some jewelry as well a light blue hooded cloak that covered her body with the hood down, displaying completely her pristine skin and refined features. She was trying to disguise herself to wait for the person sent by her ex-Captian that would bring her in front of the mountain-sized lady.

A hand prevented the man from going closer to her, elegant and practiced were her actions as she pushed him slightly to don't call even more the attention, unfortunately, she was not very good at choosing things that would keep her hidden in the crowd- Not that she had any such thing- that was one of the reasons why the Magic King never tried to give her an infiltration mission.

Sweet words flew over her head.

_Why most of the men were only talk?_

A question that would be unanswered that would remain like that for the whole existence, one of the greatest mysteries that she thought that no bright mind would be able to solve.

She remained uncharacteristically calm despite the men that gave her those sweet words growing more annoyed with her lack of response, to the point that one of the youngest ones decided to boast about his tittle. A little _boy_ of twenty-five years old whose father's standing was slightly higher than them, but considering the number of allies that his father had even in the Royal families.

Every other noble backed away from his path as he walked forward with a confident and arrogant expression, his hand on her arm. A cold look was directed to the blond boy of green eyes, making a shiver traveling down his spine, but his fearful expression did not last for too long.

"My lady, my name is Ceasar Claudius, heir of the house of Claudius, son of the cousin of the Magic King, Julius Novachrono, and I wish to know that you have caught my eye."

Yes. This arrogant bastard who refused to go to the frontlines or even fighting at all, preferring to enjoy his multiple hobbies instead of trying to protect the Kingdom like the only man that she truly respected. Most of the closest family members of the Magic King that did not have a lot of reputation on their names liked to use the reputation of Julius. _Pathetic scum._

She would simply use her magic and knock out cold this _immature __brat_ who could only boast about his social status but at doing so she would reveal that she was Charlotte Roselei and that would make her unable to visit the woman who had helped her to grow stronger than she had already been when she had become a member of Blue Rose. One of the few people that she respected, and today, after several years, she had finally managed to accomplish the first step of the promise that she had made to her and become a better Magic Knight Captian that she had ever been.

Charlotte had already thought that she would become a Magic Knight Captian as she grew stronger and stronger with each battle, but she had not been planning to do so, for the time that she spent in useless paperwork or dealing with... _other annoyances_ would consume her precious time that she wanted to invest in growing stronger.

"Please, Lord Ceasar, release me at once."

She muttered coldly while not taking her eyes away from his outraged ones that still had a hint of lust on them.

"You, you dare-!"

He raised his hand to try to slap her, crystal growing up of it as his magical energy covered his arm.

_Sigh... I will have to postpone the reunion with his teacher. _

For an hour or so until she would be able to lose the eye of the people and use disguise herself using one of the Magics that she had less proficiency in, Transformation Magic.

She readied herself to stop the open crystal-covered palm that could shatter bone with ease, her magical energy leaking out slightly.

However, the slap never met her face.

A pair of large hands had suddenly appeared on her rescue- although she had no need for such thing- made out of magical energy combined by symbols, straight lines, like words of a language that she had never known that it existed. A hand grabbed the arm that was grabbing hers and the other hand grabbed the open hand, both were twisted behind the back of the Royalty in front of her.

A crunching noise and a high-pitched scream like the one of a little girl was heard suddenly. His bones had been broken through the armor of crystal, whoever had done it was someone worthy of praise. A Magic Knight? No, few Magic Knights would dare to try to do any harm to a family member of the Magic King, even if the Magic King did not care about such things, then maybe a young aspirant to be a Magic Knight, but which noble would this one belong.

A small hand took her own and started to drag her as fast as the owner of the hand could. Surprised by the amount of strength that the small being was using to drag her with him. For the shape and form of the small hand... _gosh, this kid is way too young!_

Maybe it was the friend of this kid who had helped her for it was impossible that a kid would-

It was at that moment that her sense of magical perception managed to get a grasp of the child's magical reserves, as untrained as her magical perception was for her liking, even she could sense the immense power that came from this child by the children of his age.

A genius noble perhaps?

No, she dismissed that possibility after seeing the attire of the child. It was an extravagant attire that was not found in the residents of this country nor of any other kingdom whose inhabitants she had got to know in the battlefield. A garment that reached the down part of his body and covered almost all his skin, reaching to ankle-length, the collar was attached flatly and worn left over right, made with straight seams, wide sleeves and the long sleeves covered his entire arm, including his hand. The design was a plain grey and she could hear the tapping noise of the footwear that he was wearing, it was made of wood... shouldn't that be uncomfortable?

"Fuehhh, We managed to get away from the creepy onii-san, didn't we, onee-san?"

The terminology was foreign, but she could guess that it meant something like man and woman, only that it was in a tender manner if she were to base herself on the tone that he was using. The voice was strangely calm and kind, almost unnerving so. However, she decided to ignore her instincts that she had honed through her time as a member of the Magic Knights that were telling her to put her guard up in front of this kid. She was in guard, always, but she was also trying to relax in this short stay.

"You were the one who crushed his that man?"

Considering the noise that came out of his bones, crushing was a suitable word to say in this case.

He showed a smug in front of her as if leaving it to the imagination.

Then a realization struck her, she had once seen that kind of magic in the past. The magic of the little girl who her teacher and ex-captain had bought her freedom along with several other children that were sold in that place. As painful as it was, she had heard her teacher saying that her only regret was not bringing more money to buy more as she knew that trying to release them on the open would mean having to fight against an entire city, which she could, and the reinforcement that would arrive, but not only that, also giving an excuse to that country to send troops to aid the Clover Kingdom's enemies.

The magic of 'Words'.

"You are... the son of Airi."

It was obvious that this boy was her child for he was physically a carbon copy of his mother if she was younger. The whitest hair that she had ever seen, even more white than the current generation of the House Silva, a porcelain fragile-looking skin and a pair of silver eyes.

She had heard about the little girl giving birth from a message coming from her teacher and had not believed it. The child should have been a few years younger than her who had now a total of 23 years old, her serious demeanor that rejected all kinds of men that were attracted to her like moths to a lamp due to the beautiful looks that even she admitted were only found on the stories that the mothers told to their children, a princess of incomparable beauty... No, actually, now that she thought about it, it was kinda obvious what the _animals_ had done to her.

Ignoring the surprised expression of the child, she continued.

"Lady Angelica hadn't told me that in the letter so I kept wondering... Who is your father?"

The answer came instantly and she was not surprised by it.

"I don't know, mother has never told me neither."

The voice was not depressed nor sad, as if it did not matter... but considerating who his mother was and the immense number of people that had started to follow the ex-captain of the Blue Rose in her quest to own the whole Black Market of the Clover Kingdom and work for her, the same people that Lady Angelica had told her in the letters that she had written to her in secret were starting to look like a giant family. It was not a surprise that he did not actually care about who was the one that had impregnated his mother, probably he would be angry at such a pathetic man who dared to make such a _thing_ to the calm and gentle foreign woman.

"I see..." She closed her eyes, not gaining the courage to apologize to the child as she was guiding her towards the building where she was supposed to be the old woman. "That spell was yours."

It was not a question, it was an affirmation.

"Who knows?"

"... You have inherited an Elemental Affinity similar to the one of your mother." Another statement. "I have always wondered why your mother did not have the desire to become a Magic Knight when it was clear that her mana was big enough to rival a noble and her character was suitable for it too, hopefully, you will-"

"I think that I will stop you there, onee-san." For a moment, the straight look at her eyes was not like the one that one would expect coming from a child but the one of a veteran knight that had lost everything. A look that made her stiff her whole body, not because of fear, but of surprise. "I have no desire to live in a life of war, the only things that you get to know there is despair, false hopes, and pain, so no, I'm going to intelligently do what my mother has done and don't put myself in the path of the infinite struggle for the next day."

That was... a rather pessimistic way to put such an honorful thing, but something respectable. At least he was not like most men who exclaimed that they would bravely put their lives at the edge of the battlefield for their love, just to end up running away like cowards.

"I see... Tell me, how has it been going in these parts as of late, Lady Angelica has not been mentioning such things in her letters, just stories about her every day."

His mood visibly brightened as he started to tell her detailed information that should not be on a child's mind.

His name... Shirou was the name, right?

This Shirou... was he really a kid? The way that he talked, moved and described things... no one would ever be able to find such things on other kids.

Just who was this kid?

... Doesn't matter, at least not for now, she would have to ask Lady Angeli-... Why was the sweet child that she had gotten to know on top of Lady Angelica and why was she a bloody mess?

"Oh~ Shi-chan~ You brought Charlotte, good, good, take her to the inside while I take care of... the garbage."

... Where was that sweet, calm and kind child that used to get flustered even easier than her? And who was this demon in the shape of a woman that was treating one of the strongest Captians that has ever existed like a ragdoll.

One of the greatest mysteries that she would be unable to explain.

But one thing was certain... Airi was scary when she wanted to be.

* * *

**_Please leave your reviews... thank you for reading_**

**_I will accept any help that anyone gives me :)_**

**_Until next time_**


End file.
